Playoffs 2000:Ruff says he doesn't buy human error defense

Ruff says he doesn't buy human error defense
Associated Press

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Thought last year's dispute to decide the Stanley Cup was controversial enough? Welcome to the sequel.

"Now we're counting goals that didn't go in," Sabres coach Lindy Ruff said Saturday. "That's a tough pill to swallow."

	“	I think everybody feels in this dressing room that (the NHL) owes us something, definitely. ”
		— Sabres forward Miroslav Satan

The Sabres returned home, trailing Philadelphia 2-0 and preparing for Game 3 Sunday. But John LeClair's phantom goal that helped seal their fate Friday night is not easily forgotten.

Ruff was too incensed to speak to anyone about it in Philadelphia.

"I'm going to admit that it was a tough call, but I think the tools were there that the right call could've been made," Ruff said after reviewing two separate broadcast feeds of the game.

"We've got video, we've got the best technology around, you got all kinds of feeds. How can that be human error? I don't buy human error."

Last year, the Sabres lost the sixth and deciding Stanley Cup final game to Dallas on Brett Hull's disputed overtime goal.

That goal was allowed despite the fact replays showed he was clearly in the crease. NHL officials said they let the goal stand because Hull maintained possession of the puck.

On Friday, LeClair's goal came as a result of a different demon altogether in a game the Flyers went on to win 2-1. Trailing 1-0, LeClair's shot entered the net when the puck went in through a hole in mesh.

It wasn't until a few minutes after play resumed that ESPN's net camera showed the puck going in outside of the post. By then, under NHL rules, it was too late.

NHL senior official John D'Amico, stationed in the video replay booth, said the net camera angle wasn't available to him immediately after the goal.

"I think everybody feels in this dressing room that (the NHL) owes us something, definitely," Sabres forward Miroslav Satan said. "This is supposed to be the best league and it seems like this shouldn't happen."

And it seems like Buffalo, not just the Sabres, always finds a way to get snakebitten.

Consider the Buffalo Bills, who have lost on all four trips to the Super Bowl, including Scott Norwood's wide-right field goal with four seconds left in January 1991.

Then there was last January when the Bills lost their playoff opener to Tennessee on a last-second kick return, dubbed in Buffalo 'The Immaculate Deception.'

No one in Buffalo was accusing the NHL of having the fix in on the Sabres, but there were calls for the league to straighten up its act.

"While the argument must always be made that the Sabres still needed to win the game despite bad calls or even bad breaks, this latest blunder by the NHL defies comprehension," columnist Jim Kelley wrote Saturday in the Buffalo News. "A good goal is a good goal. A bad goal is a bad goal. But no goal at all is indefensible."

The Sabres hope to use the controversy as a rallying point.

"This one, we can put it behind us and use it to our advantage if we can rally behind it and use it for motivation," Dixon Ward said. "That's what tough teams have to do and that's what we're going to have to do."

They'll need whatever they can use considering the Sabres have never overcome a 2-0 deficit in 13 times they've been in that situation. Worse still, the Flyers have been up 2-0 in the playoffs 17 times and have never lost.

The Sabres must find a way to solve rookie goalie Brian Boucher, who's allowed just three goals in the series. Also, Buffalo must play a more disciplined game. All four Philadelphia goals have come from special teams, including one shorthanded. And both game-winning goals were scored on third-period power-play opportunities.

LeClair wasn't apologizing about the goal.

"It's one of those things that happened," he said. "You always talk about breaks. We got a break. I don't know what happened for sure, but I thought it took a weird hop. Play went on and that was it."